Ex-husband of Biden accuser Tara Reade said she told him of being sexual harassed: report

Nicholas Wu / USA TODAY

Friday

May 8, 2020 at 10:51 AM

A new court document obtained Thursday by a newspaper in California shows Tara Reade, the woman who has accused Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her in the 1990s, told her ex-husband she was sexually harassed while working in then-Senator Biden's office.

According to the document, which was obtained by the Tribune in San Luis Obispo, California, Reade's husband at the time, Theodore Dronen, said Reade told him about "a problem she was having at work regarding sexual harassment, in U.S. Senator Joe Biden’s office."

The document, which was filed in the California Superior Court and dated March 25, 1996, neither says who committed the harassment nor does it reference Reade's more recent allegation of sexual assault.

Dronen says Reade struck a deal with the chief of staff in Biden's office and "left her position."

The experience had a "very traumatic effect" on Reade, Dronen wrote.

Biden has repeatedly denied Reade's allegation.

"This claim is simply not true. It did not happen," he said at a virtual fundraiser last week.

Biden has also requested records of any alleged harassment complaints filed by Reade against him in the Senate to be released, though the Secretary of the Senate said Monday her office did not have the authority to release any Senate personnel records.

Dronen's filing had been written while contesting a restraining order Reade filed against him after filing for divorce, the Tribune reported.

Deputy Campaign Manager Kate Bedingfield said in a statement, "more and more inconsistencies keep emerging" in Reade's allegation, and while women "must receive the benefit of the doubt" and be able to come forward and share their stories, "these allegations are false and that the material that has been presented to back them up, under scrutiny, keeps proving their falsity."

Ted Kaufman, chief of staff to Biden at the time, told the Tribune, "I do not remember her, and had she come to me in any of these circumstances, I would remember her. But I do not, because she did not."

Reade called on Biden to drop out of the presidential race in a preview of an interview with former Fox News host Megyn Kelly released Thursday.

"I wish he would (withdraw from the race)," Reade said. "But he won't. But I wish he would. That's how I feel emotionally."

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